In early forecasts for the first quarter of 2021, the corrugated board industry had predicted a 0.5 per cent year-on-year growth rate.The quarter ultimately ended up with a 7.6 per cent improvement.
While no figures are available for the second quarter yet, industry sources told EUWID that this trend is continuing, including into the third quarter. Demand was outstripping capacity, even though maintenance work had been pushed back and corrugated board machines were operating non-stop, sources said.
Lead times of four weeks are now the standard for packaging, with a few sources quoting more than eight weeks. This applied not only to complex packaging, but also affected "the most basic corrugated board solutions” that can usually be delivered within days.
